Prior art
4-(tertiary amino)-pyridines are disclosed in e.g. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 17, 569-583 (1978). In this publication the extremely strong catalytic effect of these pyridines is discussed. The high catalytic activity can be used for acylating even sterically hindered secondary or tertiary alcohols, and sterically hindered alcoholic OH-groups in steroids where other methods fail. As regards the effect of this catalyst in acylating phenolic hydroxy groups it is stated that the catalysts effect a similar increase in reaction rate as is found in the case of alcohols, and specific examples are disclosed for the acylation agents acetic anhydride and dimethyl carbamoyl chloride.